SANTA CRUZ - A trio of City Council members joined the Homeless Services Center director Wednesday in announcing a raft of proposals designed to improve security at the facility and ignite an overall cultural shift in how the city deals with homelessness.

The measures, some of which were already in motion before Wednesday, are in direct response to the May 7 stabbing death of downtown merchant Shannon Collins. Convicted felon Charles Anthony Edwards III, who stayed four nights at the center before the crime, is charged with her murder.

The proposal includes tying city funding for the center to the creation of an identification registry for clients and rules that place a priority on serving local people. The plan also calls for no new homeless services facilities in the city and an expectation that other jurisdictions would work harder to address what they say is a countywide problem.

Because some of the steps put forward by Vice Mayor Hilary Bryant and Councilmembers Ryan Coonerty and Lynn Robinson involve city policy and spending priorities, they will require a vote by the full council. Some measures involve greater cooperation with county and court officials.

"None of these proposals in and of themselves would have stopped Charles Edwards, but if adopted, these approaches will bring more accountability and targeted resources to the challenges facing our community," the council members said in a statement.

THE IMPETUS

Collins, 38, was walking on Broadway around noon when authorities say Edwards, whose last known address was in San Francisco, stabbed her multiple times. Edwards, whose previous convictions involve assault and battery, has not yet entered a plea.

Coonerty said the proposal was crafted in recent days after meetings with Homeless Services Center Director Monica Martinez, as well as police, county health services and citizen groups like Take Back Santa Cruz. Other council members could not sign on to the plan because the Brown Act bars a majority of members from agreeing to take action outside public view.

"When the incident happened there was just a sense that we had to do something," Coonerty said. "The motivation behind all this right now is that in Santa Cruz, our infrastructure is overwhelmed - from the police side and community programs side."

A focus on serving local clients reflects the community's desire, he said.

"We are a small town in a small county and our systems are running at capacity trying to solve a national problem," Coonerty said.

Mayor Don Lane, a Homeless Services Center board member who has made ending homelessness a cornerstone of his mayoral term, said the proposals overall are good. But he is concerned about suggesting the city require a client identification system for the center to receive city money, which at $184,000 last year represented the largest share of social services funding.

"If for some reason the Homeless Services Center was not cooperating, then maybe the council needs to put in restrictions," he said. "But if the Homeless Services Center is agreeable to doing it, doesn't it seem unnecessary to implement it in that form now?"

Martinez, who the city credits with improving security at the Coral Street facility since taking over in 2010, said increasing accountability is critical but won't solve the underlying issue of homelessness. She said the center remains focused on getting people out of a chronic cycle of emergency shelter.

"While these recommendations will hopefully solve some of the problems our community is facing, it's really important that we try real evidence-based solutions" such as increasing permanent housing in the area, she said.

KNOWING WHO IS THERE

The Homeless Services Center already conducts intake interviews for people requesting shelter, including one with the accused killer, who told center staff he wanted to connect with a Christian community as part of his 30-day goals. The shelter in which he stayed has a 30-day limit.

The center also started an identification card program nine months ago.

Three hundred clients have cards that track services, but the cards are only mandatory for clients receiving mail at the center. Martinez said she would like to expand that requirement to people requesting shelter and add photos to the cards when funding allows.

The city wants police to be able to access the client registry, a move that requires expanding a city ordinance.

Coonerty said it makes sense to expand the police department's existing ability to review motel guest logs to include the Homeless Services Center. The proposal also calls for police to meet more regularly with the center to identify clients who might be committing crimes.

Police Chief Kevin Vogel doesn't take the proposal to mean his officers will sweep the registry at whim to see if anyone is wanted. But they could check to see if a person suspected of a crime is staying there.

"I don't see it working any differently than at the hotels and motels," he said. "We understand that people have the right to privacy. We don't use those records to go on a fishing expedition."

The center does not have the resources to conduct criminal background checks. And Vogel said police are limited in what they can share with the center about the background of anyone requesting shelter.

Mayor Lane cautioned against any security measures that might block clients just because of a criminal past.

"There are people who have a history of being in jail, that's part of why they are homeless," he said. "If a person with a criminal record isn't allowed to get services, they are going to remain on the street, not where we can engage with them and get them into a better place."

SHARING THE WORK

The trio of council members said they will not support the creation of any new homeless services facilities, adding that "other jurisdictions in Santa Cruz County need to share equally in the costs and location of social services."

Coonerty said the homeless shelters, Emeline Avenue health clinic and County Jail have concentrated the problem of homelessness in Santa Cruz.

"That has an impact on the community and a belief that we need to spread those impacts across the entire county, both in terms of cost and location," he said.

Officials estimate there are 2,700 homeless in the county.

John Leopold, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, said, "We understand the city as the county seat has its share of responsibilities. We're looking to shoulder our fair share of those responsibilities."

He said the county is considering restarting a program that provided a mental health treatment system within the jail and would support the Sheriff's Office looking into how to return people to the communities where they are from or committed a crime. He also said the county is committed to pursuing more affordable housing.

The city pays $75,000 to support a mental health outreach worker downtown, but its redevelopment funding source went away. Coonerty said the city and county are trying to figure out how to expand the outreach program not just keep it going.

Councilwoman Katherine Beiers, a Homeless Services Center board member, said she supports many of the recommendations, but would be reluctant to back a city policy saying there would be no new facilities in town to serve the homeless.

"I would not want to say that the city has enough and let someone else take care of it," she said, adding that money drives the ability to offer services. "I sure would like the feds and the state to be doing all this and they're not. We can't turn our backs on the people that need our help."

JAIL AND COURT CHANGES

The city will ask the County Jail to return inmates where they committed their crime or the place they consider home, but it's not a proposal the Sheriff's Office has resources to undertake.

"We've been asking for that for a long time, and haven't had a lot of success," Coonerty said.

Sheriff Phil Wowak said he "applauds the city for trying to address the public's concern", and he is willing to discuss options for getting inmates from other areas out of Santa Cruz when they are released.

He said he appreciates the idea of people returning to their original communities to start making their lives better, "but I don't have the resources or the staffing model or the funding stream to do what they want to do."

He noted that inmates, barring any protective orders, are free to go wherever they like. Even if they do want to go to another community, Wowak asked, "Is it the Santa Cruz County taxpayers' responsibility to do that?"

Part of the solution could be an expanded bus pass program.

Building on a model in San Francisco, the city wants to expand a 5-year-old program that offers bus tickets to homeless people who came to Santa Cruz from out of town. The Homeless Services Center spent $5,000 on the program last year, and only 5 percent of those who were given a bus ticket out of Santa Cruz are known to have later returned, Martinez said.

The difficulty is making sure "there is someone on the other end, family or a job opportunity" so the person doesn't end up homeless again.

The city also is asking the Superior Court to provide a monthly list of people who fail to appear so the city can prosecute them under a rule that allows for repeat offenders to face higher-level charges.

Alex Calvo, executive officer of the court said in a statement, "The court fully supports the sharing of information between the justice system and community partners and clearly recognizes this issue as an important community concern. We are looking closely at the city's request and reviewing our information systems and procedures to determine how best to contribute to this process."

Below is the press release issued by the Santa Cruz City Council and Homeless Service Center

Santa Cruz City Council members and the Homeless Service Center Director Monica Martinez announced several proposed policy changes following the murder of Santa Cruz resident Shannon Collins. Here is the text of the press release issued Wednesday, May 16.:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Councilmembers Ryan Coonerty, Lynn Robinson, Vice Mayor Hilary Bryant and Homeless Service Center Director Monica Martinez announced a series of policy proposals following the murder of Santa Cruz resident Shannon Collins. "We believe these proposals to be common-sense and easily implemented. They reflect the conversations we have had with police, social service providers, and concerned citizens," noted Robinson, Bryant and Coonerty. “None of these proposals in and of themselves would have stopped Charles Edwards, but if adopted, these approaches will bring more accountability and targeted resources to the challenges facing our community.”

The proposals are:

(1) This year and future year's budget allocation to homeless services will require implementation of (a) an identification system (b) a registry protocol currently used in Santa Cruz motels to give police and service providers a better sense of who is using the facility, and (c) rules that prioritize services for residents of Santa Cruz County over people from outside the area – with an exception for the winter emergency shelter and victims of domestic violence who are in imminent danger. We believe that we need to meet the needs of citizens in our community first and foremost.

(2) We propose that the City designate a police officer to meet regularly with the Homeless Services Center staff to identify homeless individuals who are engaging in criminal behavior and coordinate actions.

(3) We, as councilmembers, will not support any new homeless service facilities in the City of Santa Cruz. We believe that other jurisdictions in Santa Cruz County need to share equally in the costs and location of social services.

(4) We, as councilmembers, will work with property owners of public housing to screen current and prospective tenants for serious criminal history.

(5) We are partnering with the County to continue and expand funding for mental health outreach workers.

(6) The City and the Homeless Services Center will expand the "Homeward Bound" program using San Francisco's successful model to provide more bus tickets to homeless individuals to return to communities where they have a support system.

(7) We are requesting that the County Jail return their prisoners to their community of origin upon completion of their sentence.

(8) Finally, we will ask the judicial system to provide a monthly list of offenders who have failed to appear in court, so that the City Attorney can prosecute them under the City's repeat offender law.

“We believe that under Monica Martinez's leadership, the Homeless Services Center has dramatically improved in creating more accountability and effective programing for homeless individuals. She can count on our full support and continued funding as we work together to implement these proposals,” noted Robinson, Bryant, and Coonerty. “These reforms reflect the reality that our small community can only provide services to so many people. We need to provide a safety net for our fellow community members and meet our obligation to ensure public safety and wellbeing.”

“The Homeless Services Center's is entirely dedicated to the strategy of reducing the number of homeless people in Santa Cruz County and reducing the cost of homelessness on emergency services and public safety. The Homeless Services Center leadership and Board of Directors are eager to partner with the City of Santa Cruz to accelerate our work towards that goal,” observed Martinez.

In 2011, Robinson, Coonerty and Bryant successfully led an effort to reform Community Programs funding for the first time in 20 years. Martinez has served as director of the Homeless Service Center since 2010.